The right for young people to have their views heard on matters that affect them and for those views to be taken seriously is one of the general principles of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). For many young people in Scotland there is work to be done to ensure this right is fully realised.
What is The Right Way project?
‘The Right Way’ is a project run by the Scottish Youth Parliament (SYP) and funded by the Scottish Government’s Children’s Rights Unit. It aims to support and challenge officials and decision-makers, as duty bearers, to work to ensure young people’s Article 12 right is respected.
The right for young people to have their views heard on matters that affect them and for those views to be taken seriously is one of the general principles of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). For many young people in Scotland, there is work to be done to ensure this right is fully realised.
As a key part of that work, throughout 2022 a group of Members of the Scottish Youth Parliament (MSYPs) led The Right Way project by engaging with Scottish Government policy teams, senior officials, and youth work and children and young people’s rights organisations, and crucially, young people themselves across Scotland to develop the resources and materials on The Right Way hub.
The materials are designed by young people to give officials and decision-makers all the tool and knowledge they need to meaningfully engage with young people in their work. The hub includes:
- An online training tool on Article 12 and the UNCRC which covers four key elements of meaningful participation: What is the UNCRC and Article 12; What is meaningful participation; Barriers to participation and reaching seldom-heard groups; and feedback and closing the feedback loop.
- Young people identified three themes essential to youth participation and created the AIM The Right Way checklists to support officials and decision-makers in designing and delivering participation that is: Accessible, Inclusive, & Meaningful.
- Answers to common questions about young people’s participation with reflections from young people in the answers.
- Case studies of meaningful participation work with young people from different organisations from across Scotland with years of experience in young people’s participation.
‘The Right Way’ to do participation might be different for different policy areas, organisations or groups, but the only way to know if it’s meaningful is to engage with young people themselves in creating those policies and practices. All put together, the materials and resources on the hub will support officials and decision-makers to build a process by which you plan and deliver meaningful engagement to meet the needs of everyone involved.
